


Sketchbook.

by JaceRMontague



Series: 30k in 30 days [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Artists, F/F, and emma is an angsty game designer, but i dont know?, i might continue this?, regina draws emma a lot from a distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 13:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8491342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaceRMontague/pseuds/JaceRMontague
Summary: Emma finds a sketchbook in the hallway at college one day and finds a drawing (or seven) of herself in there.





	1. Coffee from the Canteen

**Author's Note:**

> This is more long winded then i thought it was going to be but I might continue it? I'm not sure though.

Emma stood at the printer at the top of the hallway in the art department of her college. There was one in her class but she’d take anything and any excuse for a few minutes outside of that classroom. It was stuffy and she hated her lecturer and she was bored out of her mind. Needing to print thirty sheets was the perfect excuse to go AWOL for a little while.

She bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for the printing to finish so she could sneak downstairs and duck into the smoking shelter for a quick smoke before going back to class.  As she pulled her ID card out of the printer it dropped from her hand.

‘fucks sake.’ She muttered as she squatted down to pick the card back up. That itself was difficult enough, the card was thin, the floor was polished lino and she didn’t have the nails to get under the card. After thirty seconds of scratching about the card lifted enough for Emma to pick it up and drop it into the jacket of her plaid shirt. As she went to stand back up something down the back of the printer caught Emma’s attention.

She crouched down once more and pulled the notebook from down the back of the printer. She collected her printing which hand completed while she was trying to grab her ID card, folded it in half and placed it inside the notebook. She placed the notebook in the inside pocket of her hoodie and skulked down the stairs. Instead of heading straight she turned and went to the canteen; grabbing herself a coffee. Once she had her caffeine fix in one hand, she turned and walked outside, taking a leisurely stroll to the smoking shelter. She sat on the bench, her legs crossed with her coffee beside her, turned her headphones up as loud as they would, lit a cigarette, took a drag and then pulled the notebook out of her pocket.

She took her own work out of the book and placed in back inside her pocket before opening the sketchbook. The sketches were incredible. Emma was the only girl on a Video Game Centric Graphics course and so her illustrations had never needed be in depth; she could get by on stick figures alone as long as the computer imagery was good enough so to see pages after pages of detailed, incredible portraits was astounding. The artist behind the sketchbook was the kind of artist Emma had aspired to be when she was younger but had lost the will – and the passion – to be now she was nineteen and had spent her life being told she wasn’t good enough.

She took a final drag from the cigarette before dashing it against the beam of the smoking shelter. She was about to stand up and head back to class with an excuse of needing to visit tech support when she flicked casually through the next few pages of the sketchbook. She found a charcoal of herself.

‘Interesting’ murmured as she settled back down and opened the sketchbook at that page properly. It was a sketch of Emma sitting in the student commons room, in the middle of a Fifa competition with the lads on the game coding and development course. Not that the sketch showed the boys. It was just Emma sitting down, hunched over with a game controller in her hands and her eyes trained ahead of her. This had been months ago; there had been an internal college competition – the students who produced the best video game or app won $1500 to split between them, it had only made sense for a Graphic Designer and a Game Coder to team up and work together and so that’s exactly what Emma and the boy she’d teamed up with had done. She couldn’t remember his name now. She didn’t think she actually knew his name when they were working together – she knew him by face and had him saved as ‘Gameboy’ in her phone. Not only was Emma unable to recall the boy’s name, she was unable to recall someone sitting in the common room drawing. She knew it was more than plausible that someone had been; the common room could fit 1000 people in there at a time and was closest to the art block than it was to any other department. But to get so much detail of Emma - the way her hair fell, the way her forehead creased as she glared at the screen, the way the controller was held in her hands – the artist would have to have been sitting close to her and Emma just couldn’t for the life of her remember anyone sitting near enough to draw her.

Emma noticed her portrait was the only one in the sketchbook so far that had been drawn while the model was unaware; everyone else the artist had drawn had been looking directly at the artist while they drew by the looks of things. Emma flicked through the notebook further thinking that that one drawing of her was the only one. She was wrong. A few pages more and Emma found another of her lounging on the black pleather sofa in the fine art block. Emma had been waiting for her friend who was in an illustration lecture to finish up so they could go to Starbucks together. Again, Emma didn’t remember anyone else there. In fact, Emma was certain that the hallway was empty then. Which meant that the person behind the drawing must have been in one of the classrooms, looking at Emma through one of the glass doors.

‘At least this means that the person is definitely a fine art student’ Emma thought to herself as she thought about the layout of the hallway and realised that the only way to have seen her lying across the sofa playing on a DS would have been to be sitting directly in front of her, in the fine art studio.

At first Emma had thought that the drawings were purely coincidental; the artist could have been sitting in the common room the same time as Emma and it was more than likely that seeing as the pool table was broken that day, the Fifa match between Emma and Gameboy was the most interesting thing that was going on that day and it may have simply caught the artist’s eye. It was coincidental that Emma had been lying outside the fine art studio and the artist had looked up, saw Emma and sketched her.

But then Emma found more drawings of herself. Each with increasingly less possibility of them being coincidental. There was one of Emma in the canteen, though it was nearly an hour after college lectures finished for the day and Emma was only there because she’d stayed behind to use the mac in the graphics studio because her own laptop didn’t run the software in quite the same way that a mac did. Emma was certain that the canteen was empty as she sipped her vending-machine coffee then too, it was dark outside, the canteen was pretty much silent except for the whirring of the fridges in the kitchen. There was one of Emma in the graphics lab that could only have been drawn if the person was standing in the hallway outside the studio. There was another of Emma in the smoking shelter, holding a lit cigarette in one hand and her phone clutched in the other. There was one of Emma standing in the park behind the college; leaning over the fence that lined a stream and a pond, taking photos of the swans. One of the back of Emma as she stood at the same printer she had found the notebook behind. The most recent one was Emma sitting on top of her car in the college carpark, her rolling tin on her lap and a filter held between her teeth as she rolled herself a cigarette.

Emma was wondering how she’d never spotted the artist before, especially if they could get that close to her every time they drew her.

She wanted to find the artist, find out why they were drawing her, find out who they were, find out anything.

She knew that they were a fine art student.

Emma flicked through the sketchbook again, hoping to find any more details about the artist and nearly cheered with joy when she came across a scribbled ‘R.M’ on one of the earlier drawings.

Emma stood up and wondered back up to class, she walked past her lecturer and sat down, logging into the college system. She usually hated the system, that she had to log all the hours she’d done but right now she couldn’t have been more thankful for it. She opened the course guide and found Fine Art. She had to scroll through four of the six Fine Art classes but eventually she came across an ‘R.M’ – Regina Mills.

It just so happened that Regina’s final lecture of the day ended twenty minutes after Emma’s. That was another thing Emma hated about the system – if you put the effort into looking for them, you could find anyone in the college.

She opened the college IM on her phone and sent a quick message to Regina.

‘Hey. Don’t think you know me but I found a sketchbook down the back of a printer in the art block. I think it’s yours? If it is, I’ll be at Starbucks from 5:20.’

She attached a photo of the cover of the sketchbook and waited for a reply.

‘Yes. That’s mine. I’ll be there at 5:25.’ Regina sent back.

Emma smiled, sat back and waited for the lecture to finish.

At 5:15 Emma was at Starbucks with her order sitting in front of her, waiting.

At 5:20 she sent a message to Regina telling her that she was sitting upstairs in the far right, in the corner.

At 5:25 she was spinning her phone on the table

At 5:28 she looked up when she heard an ‘excuse me?’ and saw a brunette teenager her age standing in front of her and blushing slightly. Emma could guess why.

‘Are you Regina?’

‘I am’ Regina said as she took the seat opposite Emma.

 ‘I’m Emma.’ The blonde said with a smile.

‘nice to meet you.’ Regina said despite her inability to meet Emma’s eyes and the fact her blush was deepening.

‘You too, Regina.’ Emma said as she reached into the pocket inside her hoodie and pulled Regina’s notebook out.

‘I believe that this belongs to you.’  Emma slid the book across the table and watched as the blush, somehow, got even darker.

‘Yeah, thank you.’

‘No problem. Your drawings are brilliant, by the way.’

‘Do you think so?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Do you mind that I’ve drawn you?’

‘Not really.  I was more concerned about how you were drawing me because I don’t remember seeing you.’

‘Yeah, most of them were accidents – id be walking around college or the carpark and the park to get home or whatever and I’d see you. And then I’d have to stop to draw you. The only one that wasn’t a complete accident was the one at the printer, I was sitting by them hoping to see you and then you stormed past with your headphones on and slammed the top of the scanner shut, I was pretty worried that if I spoke to you, you’d rip my head off so I stayed quiet and drew you instead.’

Emma smiled; Regina was right – the night before had been rough; she’d broken up with her girlfriend who, later that night had cost Emma her job and Emma was still seething about it – and was still slightly drunk and willing to take her anger out at anyone – when Regina had drawn her.

‘Yeah, that wasn’t a good day.’ Emma admitted. ‘How come you wanted to talk to me?’

‘To get your number?’ Regina still couldn’t meet Emma’s eyes.

‘How come you wanted my number?’

‘Because you’re beautiful.’ Regina whispered, finally meeting Emma’s eyes for the first time.

Emma could only smile. She’d never been called beautiful before.

She leant forwards, pulled Regina’s sketchbook back across the table and opened it up. She pulled a pen out of the pocket of her plaid shirt and wrote on the back page of the sketchbook. Emma put the pen back in her pocket, closed the book, slid it back across the table, picked up her coffee cup and stood up. She met Regina’s eyes once more and grinned.

‘Call me sometime?’

And then she walked away, leaving Regina sitting there stunned.


	2. Coffee on Demand

Emma was in Starbucks, a nearly empty iced latte beside her, her laptop open as she loaded and reloaded Photoshop, watching as the screen in front of her flickered to black every few minutes as the software crashed before reopening. It drove her insane but there was nothing she could do about it; her bursary didn’t go into her bank account for another two months and the software she was running wasn’t legit. She just had to power through and not throw her laptop down the flight of stairs she was sitting next to.

She popped the lid off the plastic cup with her left hand as her right hand moved swiftly over the graphics tablet she had resting on top of her keyboard as she created the latest world she was designing for class. The only time she paused her drawing was when she took a drink from the cup, chewing on the ice cubes that had been at the bottom of the cup.

After an hour, the game she was designing was beginning to make her eyes hurt from the bold colours and her brain hurt from the complexity of the design. She shut her eyes before unlocking her phone and using it to order herself another drink. The blonde decided to take a break from the world she was creating and instead opened the photoshop file she had been working on the night previous. As it loaded she stretched, leaning over the back of the chair and pressing her palms against the wall behind her as she arched her back, her muscles visibly flexing as she sat back up she rolled her shoulders and neck, working out the kinks and knots that had formed over the last four hours she’d been sitting there. As the screen flickered on and off Emma pulled her headphones off and ran a hand under her grey slouch beanie; stretched a little on the wrong side of being able to stay on her head without her headphones, pulling it off as she ran her other hand through her hair, cooling down slightly before placing the hat and the headphones back on her head. Emma watched as the screen flickered once more, twice more before the document stayed open long enough for her to continue working, picking up the graphics pen she’d placed on the table and began working, her hand moving rapidly as she zoomed in and scrolled across the screen as she worked on the illustration in front of her. She only paused when her headphones were pulled from her head to around her neck.

“Shouldn’t you be doing that in illustrator?” A voice taunted behind her as a fresh iced latte was placed on the table beside the empty cup that was quickly picked up and dropped into the clear plastic box Emma’s best friend Ruby had hoisted against her hip.

“Yeah totally, but firstly I hate it and secondly, I haven’t found a crack of it that isn’t full of virus’” Emma muttered as she zoomed back out on the page a little to make sure the line she was drawing was in the right place. “Thanks for the coffee.” She continued without looking up.

“Always the best service for my favourite little artist-“

“I’m taller than you!”

“My favourite little artist” Ruby repeated with a grin that Emma didn’t need to look at to know was plastered across Ruby’s face.

“How do I make this look less-

“The background layer needs the opacity dropping. It’s starting to blend with the layer you’re working on.” She commented as she glanced at the screen her friend still hadn’t torn her eyes away from, she watched as Emma’s brow creased in contemplation before she moved the pen across the screen and followed Ruby’s instructions, her brow instantly softening as she realised Ruby was right.

“Thanks Rubes.”

“No problem, always here for your photoshop questions.” The brunette laughed, she’d always been there for Emma, answering every question Emma had ever had since Emma was six and Ruby was eight and Emma wanted to know why the sea was blue. She’d been there when Emma was thirteen and sobbing because ‘What the hell, why is the new girl so pretty, Rubes? Why can’t I like boys the way I like her?”. She’d been there a year ago when Emma had asked ‘What the fuck am I doing with my life?’ before dropping her dual degree in US History and illustration after a three am panic attack that had nearly got her hospitalised in favour for the same games design course Ruby herself had completed a year before. Ruby had been there for every question in between and every question since including the most recent that had been asked at four that morning via text message; ‘Rubes, why can’t I get Regina out of my head?’

Emma scoffed at Ruby, finally forcing her eyes away from the computer in front of her to the face of her best friend, practically her sister, who was twenty minutes into her shift and was secure with the knowledge that Emma would be sitting there working until her shift was over and the store was closed because discounted iced lattes and free wifi were all the teenager needed to function.

Ruby loitered about, talking with Emma for as long as she could until another customer rang the bell on the counter waiting to be served. She rolled her eyes before heading back downstairs, pulling a face at the blonde as she descended. It was one of the reasons that Emma loved the seat she was in so much; the far left corner of the upper floor, next to the stairs, allowed her to see everything and everyone in the room and the stairs. The only reason she had sat in the right corner with her back to the stairs when she’d met Regina two days prior was so that Regina would be forced to make the first move, she would have to approach Emma because Emma wouldn’t see her coming.

Once Ruby was back downstairs Emma zoomed out of the illustration she was working on, analysing the colour palette she was using to make sure it still worked as well as it had done when she was bleary eyed and half asleep the night before. She zoomed in and out, making miniscule changes, altering shading by the barest amount because she needed this to be perfect.

Forty minutes later, the drink that Ruby had placed in front of her was watery with melted ice, a pool of condensation around its base. Emma was only pulled out of her reverie by the vibrations of the phone on charge next to her laptop, her hand resting atop of it as she illustrated.

Not Thirsty? Was all the text had said.

Emma’s face creased in confusion for a second message had come through.

Look up

Emma glanced up and she looked around the room, her face relaxing and a grin forming as her eyes landed on the top right of the room. Sitting on the sofa she’d been sitting on two days before was Regina, a closed laptop on the low table in front of her and her phone in one hand as she smiled at Emma, blushing slightly.

Before Emma could do more than pull her headphones down to around her neck Regina was already standing up, sliding her laptop into a tote she pushed onto her shoulder, her drink in one hand and her phone in the other.

Regina moved across the room with a grace that Emma had only ever seen in movies, Emma was certain that everything from the group of students in the middle of the room to the steamer downstairs had gone quiet as Regina took a seat beside Emma at the circular table, their knees almost touching as they sat near perpendicular. Emma grinned as she spoke.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Regina answered with a grin as she placed her Frappuccino on the table next to Emma’s iced latte and slid her bag onto the floor beside Emma’s open rucksack, earphones and wires and a book Regina had been desperate to read for weeks poking out the top.

“Is it a good book? I’ve been meaning to buy it for a while.” The brunette rambled before she could stop herself, a blush creeping up her neck.

Emma laughed a little at the excitement in Regina’s eyes as she spoke, not in a malicious way, in a soft, accepting way. One that expressed the blonde’s disbelief that she had found a girl who was into art and reading and seemed to think that Emma was worth talking to. She almost laughed harder when she realised that it was Regina who had found her. She’d only found the sketchbook.

“Yeah, it’s one of my favourites, I finished rereading it for like the third time this morning.” She answered while reaching down and pulling the paperback from her back, placing it on the table in front of Regina.

“Borrow my copy.”

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Completely. I’ve read and reread it and it’s good and you want to read it, so yeah. Borrow it.” Emma answered with a grin, tapping the front cover with the graphics pen she still had held in her hand.

“Thank you” Regina replied softly, the gratitude obvious in her voice as she picked up the book and tuned it over in her hands carefully, examining it, the soft corners and the coffee stains on the edge of the pages, thumbing over the dents in the cover from where Emma had read it and reread it and kept it in her bag.

“So, what’re you doing in a Starbucks on the hottest day of the year?” Emma asked as Regina placed the book back on the table,

“I needed my coffee fix and somewhere to work, what about yourself?”

“I needed a constant supply of coffee, free wifi, and somewhere to work seeing as college isn’t open today.”

“And the only place was Starbucks?” Regina teased with an arched eyebrow.

“Exactly.”

Regina laughed at Emma’s wince as the blonde took  a sip from the melted drink beside her.

“Oh God, that’s awful” Emma spluttered as she began mixing the drink with a straw in an attempt to make the drink taste even a little better. “Nope” She grumbled as she tried the drink once more, already unlocking her phone and texting Ruby. “Do you want another drink?” She asked, nodding at the half-empty drink Regina had placed on the table when she had sat down.

“Let me buy them?”

Emma shook her head with a sly grin “Let me get these. You can get the next ones. Same drink or different?” Emma asked as she deciphered the familiar scrawl of Ruby’s handwriting on the side of the cup.

“Same please.”

“Is there really two espressos in that?” Emma asked with a chuckle as she hit send and locked the phone, placing it back on the table.

“Problem with that?” Was the response asked with a grin.

“No, no, of course not. Who am I to judge another’s coffee? I am but a lowly coffee peasant.” Emma answered, looking down, pretending to be solemn.

Regina burst out laughing, her head tilting back as she laughed. “A lowly coffee peasant? You spend all your time in Starbucks from what I can tell.”

The two exchanged quips back and forth for a while, pausing only when their drinks were placed in front of them.

“Wait – how did you do that?” Regina asked, genuinely perplexed at how Emma had ordered the drinks and had them delivered to their table without moving.

“The lowly coffee peasant has her ways.” Ruby asked with a smile and a sparkle in her eyes, using the remark she had overheard whilst she had been making the drinks.

“The lowly coffee peasant needs to teach me her wats.” Regina laughed as she leaned forwards, resting her head on her hand, her elbow next to the book.

“The lowly coffee peasant has been best friends with the Coffee Meister for many years.” Ruby replied, her voice deep and mysterious as she collected Emma’s still near-full cup, depositing it into the plastic box on her hip.

“Woah I’m invisible!” Emma exclaimed, turning her hands slowly in front of her face, causing the two brunettes in front of her to fall into laughter, the group of students in the middle of the room glaring at them not that either of them cared.

“Nah, you’re just the lowly coffee peasant’ Ruby remarked as she moved to stand behind Emma, leaning over and pressing a key on the laptop to bring the screen to life after it had gone into stanfby while Emma and Regina had been talking.

“Looking good.” Ruby commented as the screen lit up and the photoshop document came to life.

“Thanks Rubes”

“What’re you drawing?” Regina asked as she caught a glimpse of the screen, the image still zoomed in beyond recognition.

Emma glanced at Ruby who took the hint and headed back downstairs with a thin excuse of someone needing to be served.

Emma’s neck flushed a deep crimson as she took a deep breath and zoomed the image out, picking up her drink and biting down on the straw out of nerves as she turned the computer to face Regina.

“Wow” Regina managed to whisper as the air was forced out of her lungs at the beautiful illustration in front of her. It was so amazing she didn’t quite believe it was her. “You did this?” She asked, her voice shaking slightly as she held back her emotions, her voice barely above a whisper as she studied the drawing. It wasn’t as hyper-realistic as Regina’s own drawings were but it wasn’t a caricature either; it was a perfect in between placed on a pale blue background and doodled embellishments that anywhere else Regina would have thought were Tumblr-cliché but in this style, in this drawing, it fit perfectly, it was perfect.

“Uh, yeah” Emma answered, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand – a nervous habit she’d developed years ago.

“It’s incredible.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.” Regina’s voice remained quiet as she glanced up and met Emma’s eyes, could see the pure vulnerability in them. She wondered if that was how she herself had looked two days ago when Emma had handed her the missing sketchbook back.

“It’s really, really good. It’s- you did this from memory?”

The blonde nodded has her right hand stayed on the back of her neck.

“Emma, I love it.” Regina’s voice had dropped back to a whisper as she gently tugged Emma’s hand away from her neck, interlaced their fingers; partly to stop Emma from rubbing her neck raw but mostly because she’d been dying to touch Emma since they’d first seen her playing Fifa in the student commons almost a year ago.

Emma’s panicking halted at the feeling of Regina’s hand around her own, keeping her calm.

‘Oh’ She thought to herself, realising that this was already far more than a crush on the girl sitting next to her.

“Are you okay?” Regina asked softly.

Unable to form the words she needed Emma just nodded, a smile forming on her face once more.

Regina spent another while looking at the image in front of her, discovering more and more about it like how the shadows were actually intricate doodles.

The two soon fell back into conversation, starting with their art, what they were doing in their respective classes, their coffee addictions. The two bounced from subject to subject with ease; three more orders texted down to Ruby as they spoke, loosing track of time and melted drinks, hands interlaced the entire time.

Eventually their conversation was halted by a “Swan! Store’s closing, babe!” hollered up the stairs.

 The two glanced across the room to the windows and realised that it was late and dark, and they laughed because they’d spent the entire day talking without realising.

“Coming Rubes!” Emma shouted back as she unplugged her laptop and slid it and its charger into the open bag next to her feet, finally letting go of Regina’s hand as she did so. She pulled the bag onto her shoulders and grabbed the empty drink containers with one hand, gently taking Regina’s hand in her own once more as the descended the flight of stairs tomorrow. Emma dropped the cups into the bin and grinned at Ruby, mouthing her thanks when the brunette told her to go wait outside instead of helping lock up. The two teenagers made their way outside, grateful for the warmth of the summer air.

“So, when are you next planning a Starbucks work day?”

“Tomorrow, do you want to join me?” Emma asked, the cockiness of when she had first given Regina her number replaced by a genuine warmth and sincerity that Regina hadn’t quite been expecting.

“If it’s okay with you, I’d love to.” Regina answered with a grin that made her eyes sparkle and Emma’s heart expand.

“It’s okay with me.” Emma said, her voice gentle.

Regina nodded, “Text me when you plan on getting there and I’ll make sure I’m there on time.”

“Of course. Ruby’s on all tomorrow as well so I’ll have the coffee ready.”

“Perfect.”

The two stood in silence for a moment, just looking at one another, neither sure what to do, what to say when a bus pulled up at the stop beside them.

“That’s the last one, I need to get it” Regina rushed, a sadness in her voice.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Emma asked, purely because she didn’t want the conversation to end.

Regina leant in and kissed Emma’s cheek softly.

“You’ll see me tomorrow.” She confirmed as she turned and rushed onto the bus, leaving Emma to stare longingly as she waited for Ruby to give her a lift home.

“You like her.” Ruby teased as she locked the door behind her, making Emma jump.

“I really do.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope everyone is having a wonderful day.


End file.
